St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-10
THE PLEAS FOR MERCY.
Details of the Siege the Governor
Was Subjected TO.

SPRINGFIELD, H., Nov. "a large
crowd stood on the platform at the
depot this morning waiting to see the
Chicago delegation which had come to
intercede with Gov. Oglesby in behalf
of the condemned anarchists. On ar
rival of the train the delegation at once
proceeded to the headquarters of the
labor delegation. The Chicago Am
nesty association is represented by
MeSSrS. l.. S. Oliver, E. A. Stevens and
j. r. Buchanan, of the Labor Enquirer.
These gentlemen have a set of petitions
of their own. Prof. William Salter and
H. ID. Lloyd have another set of petit
tiorfs. Capt. Black has sole charge of
the main petitions, and of these there
are so many that it required a separate
trunk to convey them here. Mr.. Blu
chanan, who made an estimate of all the
petitions sent in from all parts of the
country, says that there are eleven miles
of names begging for clemency. The
delegation of labor people from New
York consists of J. Z. Quinn, Samuel
Gompers, l.. j. Terrell and Edward
King. 1t is claimed that they alone
have a petition with 100000 names at
tached. The feeling among the labor
people who have come here is that there
can be no argument before the governor
on the legal questions Of the case. The
two features now to be presented are
the questions of
MERCY AND PUBLIC POLICY.
On account of the rain and bad
weather. the delegation, which was to
start for the state house at 9 o'clock, was
delayed until little after that hour.
When Capt. Black and Gen. Trumbull
arrived at the state capitol they were
informed that Gov. OgleSby had not yet
arrived. On account of this a half
hours delay followed. The doors of
the reception room were thrown open at
$40 o'clock, and the different commit
tees filed in. There were nearly hun
dred present when they were all assem-
bled Capt. Black was presented to the
governor at once, the latter greeting the
lawyer with his extended hand, after
which he turned to small table at one
side OF the room. A few minutes later
all was as still as death and Capt. Black,
advancing to the corner of the table at
which Mr.. Oglesby sat, began to read
his address. The relatives of the con-
demned sat in a semi-circle to the left
of the speaker. Capt. Black first began
by reading
THE GENERAL. PETITION
which had been signed by the men
themselves. The anarchist lawyer adj
vanced little ways when he came to
the passage which said that never be-
fore the day of the Haymarket riot had
a single meeting of the anarchists been
interrupted by the police. At this point
Gov. Oglesby interrupted, and asked if
he was to understand that statement as
the truth. ''YeS. sir responded the
lawyer in his solemn tones, land, fur
thermore. that very meeting was at
tended by Mayor Harrison himself, who
remained there until within twenty
minutes of the riot"
Proceed" said the governor.
Capt. Black took twenty minutes to
read the petition. and when be closed he
said: 'sThis has been signed by Michael
Schwab. Samuel Fielden and August
Spies. The reason that the accused
Parsons, Fischer, Engel and Lingg did
not append their names to this paper
was because they claimed that they had
forwarded to your eXcellency their au-
tograph letters and did not think it nee
essary to sign this
THE PETITION
reciteS the history of the alleged Of
Tense for which the petitioners had been
condemned. 1t affirmed that neither of
them either threw the fatal bomb or adj
yised the throwing; that they had no
knowledge of the fact that it was to lie
thrown: that they had ALWAYS cO;tn-
seled and encouraged peace. COIsid-
cradle space GaS devoted to an attempt